Night
by cellophane prince
Summary: Sidney finds that these things happen with the devil's hound for a companion. He can only hope that soon enough, Phoebe will dig him back. Baskervilleshipping plus Devilshipping, almost.


He rolled into the wall beside his bed; a hiding place when he shut his eyes; a barrier for his dreams.

It was dark. The specks of dust and skin that had floated across the enclosed area in his motion had been stilled and for a moment, his body ceased to twitch and slide, and his sheets paused in their creasing. The late hour was announced by ticks, indistinguishable from one another and screeching from the opposite wall through the silence.

It seemed there was only so much that the curling darkness could do for his wants anymore. After a young life of wild nights and lost memories, the basics of his passion for the evening had been broken down to the basics. It was not a common thing for him to do anymore, stumbling into the night merely to satisfy himself and his stead. He had contracted a sleeping sickness as of late, and he had not given himself the time.

She lay obediently by Sidney's side. A tattered rug; the starry floor. Her horns twisted around her neck, their tips slicing dangerously through the air as she whinnied her head and nuzzled her powerful jaws back into the warmth of her breast. The devil. A dog.

Sidney's nose lay inches from the wall, his slow breath leaving condensation in his view. His eyes were open and he was awake. The cruel death of the daylight occurred beyond his consciousness and his body was rested strangely. He still ached from a strenuous day training from the week past and he disliked it, his slender muscles vibrating inside his arms and his chest as his body's natural rhythm had been tampered with.

They operated differently than the others, his Houndoom and he. A Sunflora yearns for the bright rays in the sky, but they were Vileplumes.

He rustled. A canine's long head rose slowly from the floor. She anticipated further movement from her master, doleful eyes staring into his back. He was wifebeaten. The eerie glow from the moon outside shone through the burned slits, draped over the window like a blanket; the light staggered itself across the floor in rows, brightly. Furniture was the stain of a shadow and nothing more.

The past few weeks for Sidney had been composed of lifestyle adjustment. He was in the Elite Four now, and things were different. The days had scraped themselves on the inside of his brain and assumed their seats in the very front of his head as constant reminders of a new style. He had responsibilities; he had been _picked._ His new clients were the steely-eyed teens who opened the door to his chamber, backwards hats and grim smiles alike. Shaking in their shoes. His job was to stand, and to wait for them. It was important, and that was how it was.

In his room he gazed at himself through the reflection of the blank walls, listening to the crusty punk music he had heard assertively so often during his earlier years and to old classical albums he had found in stores. The speakers were blowing out and screeching and to him that was fine as long as they still worked. He remembered fondly the energy of his youth, often as he lay in his bed throughout the duration of faux-sleep.

She shook her snout and breathed impatiently, sparks flying from between her glowing white teeth. Scratching his cheek, he turned in place and found her watching.

"Mmm," he muttered groggily as he sat up slightly, rubbing his prickly chin. "You ready, girl?"

---

A walk.

The narrow path became dirt as it twirled away into the moonlight before them. Houndoom prowled ahead, her head bowed low to the ground as her massive, silent paws padded slowly in coordinated zigzags. He ambled along, fingers leaving his pockets to run themselves along the single tuft of hawked hair that had been maintained upon his head. His vest was intended more for looks than for the warmth it was providing, but he didn't mind. His eyes were on the stars.

He didn't notice anything unusual until their feet had begun to wander toward the towering woods, when Houndoom began to growl like death.

"Hey--!" He stopped, ears perked in anticipation of further sound. An uncommon intruder, perhaps; the dog sensed a menace. They all do, he thought slowly, whether the culprit ever be an issue to resolve, or not.

A crack filled the empty void of space and noise as his companion began to run. Sidney's neck began to bristle as he followed her, in fear of what he knew as opposed to that of the unknown. The devil's hounds were a vicious breed.

She did not bark viciously. Her shoulders rotated back and forth as she slowed her pace once more, prowling, hunting. The starry night sky loomed above them like a ceiling, the brush before them another gateway into a reborn forest. Trees began to surround them as the buzzing of the insects did; thin, stretching, they beckoned outsiders in with a curl of a wooden finger.

"It's probably only a Caterpie, girl," Sidney finally said softly, trailing behind Houndoom with steps just as careful. His height was distorted amongst the living edifices of the earth. "Don't want to cause a scene out here, we're only on a walk..."

The prickle on his neck subsided as they made their way down a narrow and barren path. Minutes passed and he assumed his Pokemon had given up on her hunt, opting to merely wander further through the night. She needed the exercise, and Sidney liked the dark.

_"Hhh--"_

A shuffle below the trees. The air was suddenly still before the fire flashed and blinded the girl who stood beyond them.

Sidney's heart exploded in his chest as he watched her slim brown forearms obstruct her face, securing her anonymity as her knees buckled and she fell back. Houndoom snarled, black flames seeping from her teeth and licking the dirt as she reared her head back threateningly.

"Houndoom, no!" Sidney cried, his hands jolting forward in surprise and panic. "Get back, that's a person!"

The dog bowed her nose reluctantly and stepped backward, eyes still burning as they glared at the figure that lay on the ground before her.

"Oh God--" Sidney nearly fell over himself as he clambered over his Pokemon's victim. He immediately saw that the girl hadn't been visibly charred or injured and for the moment, breathed more easily. Her arms still covered her head as she was hunched on her side, bare knees tucked in closely. "Are you okay?" Sidney asked desperately, hands grasping the air around her, unsure of whether or not she was safe to touch. She twitched her arms away, and groaned, and his eyes

widened.

"...Phoebe."

Another deep growl. Sidney whirled around to see Houndoom's legs stiffen, facing another creature standing in the dark. Figure impish and purple, its eyes were crystalline and they reflected the miniscule scraps of light that shone through the gaps in the foliage above.

Silence. The two Pokemon stood squarely apart, Sableye's ambiguous gaze ominously piercing toward the hound through the thickening air, and for the second time, there was an eerie pause that held the breath of every pore in every tree. It happened before the ghoul widened a previously invisible mouth; insides red, teeth long and sharp, it screamed.

The impact was shocking. Its sound drilled into Sidney's ears and his eyes squeezed shut, animated fingers clutching at the sides of his head in pain. Houndoom shook her head away from the sound, before leaping meters forward and snatching the ghoulish creature through the air. Sableye snarled and twisted and scratched from between the dog's massive jaws as Houdoom began to shake violently, in an attempt to snap its neck--

"NO!" Sidney yelled, diving forward onto his Pokemon's back as a red light shot toward them across the dark.

"Sableye, return!"

The ghoul disappeared in a flash, sucking back into the ball Phoebe held out before her as she remained stretched across the ground on her side. Sidney loosened his grip and the dog scrambled to get away. "Take a hike, go on!" he snarled furiously.

Tongue out, she panted in recovery, eyes looking up at him from the angle at which she lowered her head. It was merely a misunderstanding.

"Get!"

She leaned forward hesitantly, then turned and began to walk into the trees. He and Phoebe watched her as she settled down a few meters away, resting her chin guiltily upon her paws.

Sidney remained standing there, arms to his sides and chest puffed out. He breathed. His bald forehead was beaded wet, red half-hawk leaning slightly to the side, askew.

"Got quite a bit on your hands, huh?"

Brow still furrowed, he turned to face the girl who got to her feet, brushing off the dirt from her legs and her stomach. She wore blue flower-print cloth loosely applied across her body, and pink flowers adorned her hair. The danger was over, and for the first time that night Sidney realized the importance of, exactly, _who_ it was that had been creeping through the woods in the late night hours, doing with her pet exactly what he had been doing with his.

"No wonder why they let you into the Four," Phoebe continued, smirking slightly. "That Pokemon's got more bite than you; it just so happens to be owned by you."

"What were you doing out here?" he asked stupidly.

"What were _you_ doing out here, newbie?" She moved toward him slowly, bare feet crushing leaves that had been infected by the heat. "Lucky I wasn't hit by those flames, though I think my hair might have just gotten a little shorter. What are you doing without a Pokeball for that thing? Do you not have one, or something?"

Her blue eyes, normally soft, were icy as they gazed into his. He could see the dust still drifting through the air as the light between the branches suspended it perfectly between them. He looked away, embarrassed, silently fuming at himself.

"I...well, yeah..."

"Alright then," she said, resting her stance upon a hip as she crossed her arms. "I guess it's one thing if you were just going on a night walk with your dog, because you're a Dark type trainer and that's how you are. And I guess it's another thing that you're new here and all--"

"I'm so sorry," Sidney cut her off, pleading. "There wasn't any guideline to free time described anywhere to me. Steven and Drake--"

"Steven and Drake are busy men, Sidney," Phoebe said, rubbing the side of her neck with quiet concern. "They're not going to have time to describe to you every real aspect of every detail that exists around here in Ever Grande. You're in the Elite Four now, and you should know a lot of these things yourself. Your Houndoom is dangerous, you know?"

"And I guess..." Sidney started, hand on his elbow as he stood looking at the ground, towering beside her. "...that means that as long as there's somebody like me, I can't be expected to do everything I like."

A slight breath of wind crept through the forest entrance nearby, sighing through the enclosed area as the two thought for a moment, his words turning over in their brains like a slip of paper in the wind. They looked away from one another for a while, the moon was still bright through the branches above them.

"It's nice here," Phoebe said softly, changing the subject. She clutched further at her bare arms. "I usually like to get away, do some meditative activity. You know? Hang out in the dark with a companion you trust. I think that it's healthy." She patted down a stretch of her traditional island-style gown that rustled in the breeze. "Usually you'd find me at the ocean shore nearby. At night, when the gravity from the moon pulls the waves up toward the sky and they become restless. With my ghosts, I know that nothing can harm me. It feels like where I grew up."

Sidney nodded. He looked back at his comrade, his friend, who remained curled away from them in a huddle of frustration.

"What I'm trying to say is, I can't blame you for coming out here at this hour; for being here right now, regardless of the circumstances," Phoebe went on, looking at him delicately. "In fact, you know, I guess I'm glad. You might be the first person here who I've been able to tell that to."

"Why's that?" Sidney asked quietly, scratching his hand. Phoebe shrugged. "It's just because nobody else would really appreciate it. Glacia, Drake, Steven...they've all been around here doing their thing for years now. I sleep during the day when I can, walk during the night. They're just different. They think I'm a little weird for it, that's all."

"Weird?" Sidney said, stepping back slightly. "Hell, where I'm from, we only slept when we were taking the bus somewhere or when we passed out by accident on somebody's couch. Getting up this close to constant daylight so often is one of the strangest things I've had to get used to in the past few years of my life." He put his hands in his pockets as Phoebe watched him kick the dirt. "There's too much going on in the world to sleep, we ain't got _time_ for it.

"You know, ever since I met you I have to admit that I liked your style," she said, flowers dancing in the air beside her head as she grinned sympathetically, reaching up to rub her hand into Sidney's red tuft of hair. "You're still young. And from what I know now, it seems I can't be surprised by your inability to be careful. Even with your own pets."

For the first time, he cracked a smile and chuckled. "It's sure been an adjustment, coming to Ever Grande City," he said, resting his hands on the back of his head. "But I was stuck, and I needed to turn my life around somewhere. Best damn thing that's ever happened to me."

"You and me weren't originally made for a place like this. Me from the islands off the coast, you from the city. It's all just a fortune's circumstance, isn't it." Phoebe turned back into Sidney's stolid face, her blue eyes gazing into his soul. He turned away suddenly to look at Houndoom still behind him; Phoebe raised her brow. "What, is something wrong?"

"Not at all," the punk said, still turned slightly. "I was just thinking."

"Were you?" Phoebe asked, stepping closer to his side. There was a pause, before she added, "Well? I'm not _entirely_ psychic, you know."

His eyes scanned the trees, the towering pillars of a lush fortress that became increasingly alive within the softening ascent of the slow-moving sun, as he felt her warmth close to him.

"It's just a comforting thing, to know you'll never truly be by yourself in the dark."


End file.
